486 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



of a prior student may well be doubted. It is a custom 

 which nowadays in the struggle for profit is too often for- 

 gotten. At all events Gray's heart was won. He ceremon- 

 iously salutes Monsieur Dufay and felicitates himself that 

 his experiments should have been confirmed by so judicious 

 a philosopher; and, no doubt, in the quietude of his little 

 chamber at Grey Friars, wonders if it is really u poor 

 brother" Gray, with his experiments with the tea-kettle 

 and the pint-pot and the fishing-poles and threads, who is 

 receiving these compliments from the distinguished French 

 scientist through the Royal Society and his Grace of 

 Richmond. 



But he was invigorated much invigorated. And be- 

 sides, what Dufay had said about the burning sparks 

 piqued his curiosity immensely. Out came the poker and 

 the tongs, and the fire shovel, too, this time, to be hung 

 up on silk threads and the crackling sparks produced, of 

 which last a small boy was made to suffer the pain, even 

 through his stockings. The next victim was a large 

 white rooster, replaced by a sirloin of beef, and finally an 

 iron rod astonished him beyond measure by exhibiting the 

 true brush discharge, u rays of light diverging from the 

 point," and hissing. Pewter plates, iron balls, dishes of 

 water, were all pressed into service. The flames were real, 

 and they burned and crackled and exploded. " The effects 

 at present," says Gray, "are but in minimis, but in time 

 there may be found out a Way to collect a greater Quan- 

 tity of it, and consequently to increase the force of this 

 Electric Fire, which by several of these experiments (si 

 licet maguis componere parva) seems to be of the same 

 Nature with that of Thunder and Lightning." 



From that time on, Gray and Dufay maintained com- 

 munication with a degree of friendliness which leads Fon- 

 tenelle to wish that it might always typify the intercourse 

 of the two great nations to which they severally belonged, 

 and to add, with pardonable exaggeration, that "they en- 

 lightened and animated one another, and together made 



